movies/tv Why is Shrek so popular?

[Muffinnz 3,219]

is it because so many memes were pulled out of it?

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Watch “Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life” and you’ll get it. 

[Splashee 28,566]

I saw Shrek way too late. It was a big huge commercial about 3D characters and the latest pop songs. Not my thing.

[DubWolf 17,279]

You should be asking why Shrek isn't more popular !

[Jesse Terrence 2,968]

Because shrek is life, shrek is love.

[ExplosionMare 18,067]

OGRE MEMES

did I even spell pègre right?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Shrek brought some the greatest pop songs to ever grace this planet. Of course, when memes became popular Shrek jumped on the meme ship and his popularity skyrocketed. 

[Sphinx-Ara 3,571]

Movies like Shrek and Shark Tale were the movies that made me want to stop watching Dreamworks movies.. But I also do not understand why it is so popular..

[DubWolf 17,279]

34 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

OGRE MEMES

did I even spell pègre right?

Pègre isn’t ogre  . Nice try, but your profile doesn’t color code text !

[CastletonSnob 3,077]

It's popular because a lot of people grew up with it.

Edited August 26, 2020 by CastletonSnob

[Denim&Venöm 19,152]

Because it's one of those rare family movies that catered slightly more towards the parents than it did the kids, and has aged well because of it. 

 

[Megas 27,731]

because "LOL MEMEZ!"

Spoiler

Okay seriously, the first two movies at the very least were genuinely great films, moreso the second one

 

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

Because Shrek is love, Shrek is life 

Okay, seriously DON'T look those videos up on YouTube, you will be SCARRED by them 

[HereComesTom 2,268]

Shrek came out at a time when the old-school fantasy of things like Disney classics were starting to fade in popularity, and it poked fun of those fantasies---while still being a quality movie with good character development, good dialog, and good pacing.  Plus, beneath all the toilet humor and parody, it still had a good heart.

I think that's why it was and is popular.

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

3 minutes ago, HereComesTom said:

Shrek came out at a time when the old-school fantasy of things like Disney classics were starting to fade in popularity, and it poked fun of those fantasies---while still being a quality movie with good character development, good dialog, and good pacing.  Plus, beneath all the toilet humor and parody, it still had a good heart.

I think that's why it was and is popular.

This basically. Nothing more to add, Tom got it spot on.

[Ittoni 538]

Well, why knuckles is such a meme? Because they are weird

[Jesse Terrence 2,968]

Just now, ShadOBabe said:

This basically. Nothing more to add, Tom got it spot on.

I might have to disagree on not having more to add to it, though he really gave a good explanation, but there's even more to it.

You see, Shrek on itself was already a fairy tale before it became a movie. The book was made by some cartoonist back in the 1990's, and it was a deconstruction and parody of the fairytale genre. It was already good on its own as a child friendly comedic fairytale and a fine example on how one can change paradigms on fiction genres and even make your most likely antagonist into a protagonist without redemption arcs.

Now, the movie was amazing despite it didn't follow the book too closely. It marked a trend on upcoming animation and media directed towards children (Disney movies included) by doing something we saw on MLP FiM almost a decade after Shrek; Shrek started with child friendly content that was actually enjoyable for parents and older audiences as well as it target audience, and that slipped tons of pop culture references, double entendres and characters that didn't fit cliche archetypes. Shrek was groundbreaking in the industry, and thanks to it modern animation attempted to not treat children like monkeys that can't understand sarcasm and deconstruction. It also pushed the boundaries of 3d animation back in the day. Let's remember Toy Story had been released just 6 years before, in 1995, and there's an abysmal difference between all the technical aspects on both, from how organic the animation looks on shrek to how light and shadows render and how textures look less clayish.

And there's a lot more to say about shrek, but I would take me forever and nopony likes walls of text.

[HereComesTom 2,268]

15 minutes ago, Jesse Terrence said:

And there's a lot more to say about shrek, but I would take me forever and nopony likes walls of text.

You can spread it out over a few posts, and you're dead-on right about Shrek's animation:  I remember watching some of the DVD extras on it when I was younger, and I remember that the animators said that they made the forest and Fiona so realistic that they had to change them a bit to make them cartoonier to fit the rest of the movie---it was a major leap forward in technology!  Before that, I think most movies had been hand-drawn 2-D, but after Shrek, CGI was the norm.

Of course...there's a lot more to discuss about it than just the tech, isn't there?

[CastletonSnob 3,077]

Fun bit of trivia: Chris Farley was originally going to voice Shrek.

[Technoblade 114]

shrek is not just a movie character but a religion; a lifestyle

Edited August 26, 2020 by creativeUsername

[Dreambiscuit 9,962]

It seems like Shrek was an okay idea that went far too many times to the well and ran out of inspiration. It had enough material to make one passable movie, but that’s about as much as it ever had for me.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,596]

Outside of the memes, I think the reason why the Shrek series is so popular (specifically the first two films) is because of the novelty factor. When the first movie came out, there was nothing else like it. It was surprisingly risque for a family film, it was self aware, it poked fun at all the tropes of fairy tales (and ESPECIALLY Disney fairy tales), and it was hugely influential. It inspired a slew of other animated films in the 2000's (most of which weren't very impressive) that wanted to either emulate the success of Shrek or ride off of its coattails.

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

Honestly, How do you NOT see why it's so popular? It's the greatest masterpiece Dreamworks has ever made. It's Disney level good.

[Emerald Heart 24,939]

14 minutes ago, Asbel Lhant said:

Honestly, How do you NOT see why it's so popular? It's the greatest masterpiece Dreamworks has ever made. It's Disney level good.

Agreed!

I mean, the movie even got it's own show on Broadway. I watched it on Netflix, it was really good!

[DubWolf 17,279]

42 minutes ago, Emerald Heart said:

Agreed!

I mean, the movie even got it's own show on Broadway. I watched it on Netflix, it was really good!

Holy eff. This exists?